Boston butt

Also known as pork shoulder butt, this cut refers to the top of the shoulder, a gorgeous hunk of protein with tender meat and generous marbling, with a blade bone running through part of it. If you happen to live in St. Louis, this is the section from which pork steaks (also called blade steaks) are cut.

In Colonial America, pork was often packed for storage or shipment in wooden casks called “butts.” Butchers in Boston developed a distinctive way of cutting the shoulder, hence the name, “Boston butt.”